The movement of the Women’s Church Uprising raises its voice this Sunday under the motto “This is my body,” within the celebrations of 8M, International Women’s Day, in 33 Spanish territories to claim equality in the Church, demand full access to all positions and services, and say “enough.”
“We have been reflecting and saying for many years: this cannot continue like this,” assures in an interview Mabel Ruiz, representative of Women and Theology of Zaragoza, an organization with 35 years of history in the city and which is part of the Uprising, a movement born in 2020 in Barcelona.
Adding to the wick that was lit in the Catalan capital in 2020 and which initially spread to five Spanish cities, on March 1st, 33 collectives join in to demand “another church organization.”
The representative of Women and Theology of Zaragoza states that, despite equality reaching all areas of society, it is lagging behind in the religious sphere.
This year’s motto, “This is my body,” denounces the Church’s control over women’s bodies. And the Revolt does so through two archetypes: the Virgin Mary represented in the Church as a silent woman, and Eve, as a sinner.
“They are in a brutal translation error,” Ruiz states, explaining that if the verses are listed in the Gospels in which the Virgin Mary speaks, “one realizes that she says nothing at all; that has been invented.”
Ruiz questions the Church’s image of Eve as “the introducer of all evils,” a vision that, in his opinion, has fueled the historical guilt of women. “We don’t move forward with these models,” he emphasizes.
The interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve is “painful,” he says. Current theologians assure that the literal translation is that God created a terrestrial human being, “without gender,” which then split into man and woman.
The representative believes that the message has been manipulated for purposes that “are not in the service of Jesus or his gospel,” and points out that, in his dealings with others, **Jesus always acted in a completely “egalitarian” manner.**
The Church’s delay, she says, is due to an “unreviewed tradition” that has become “stagnant and dormant” and needs to be updated. “**Tradition has used women for what has suited it, to make them silent and submissive,”** she denounces.
Therefore, she considers it necessary to return to the sources and stop justifying the subordination of women with “biblical texts poorly translated,” “manipulated interpretations of the Gospel,” and with a “medieval” tradition.
Asimismo, she believes that good feminist theological training should be given to priests, giving space to women because there are “many theologians with brilliant academic records, whom they value greatly but do not give the word,” she states.
She affirms that they are single, cis, and European men who dictate how faith should be for all of humanity. Women “do not have a voice in any official space,” Ruiz emphasizes.
To achieve real change, the representative insists that it is necessary to raise awareness of feminism among Christian men and women. “The structure is very powerful,” she states, and points out that men who have occupied “all the space” must engage in self-criticism because “no matter how much they insist, this will fall.”
Ruiz advocates for a new church organization where there is full access to all positions and services of the Church “so that gender has nothing to do with it, but rather their capabilities, their gifts, and their charisma,” she emphasizes.
The images the Church shows of women will lead, he predicts, to them “becoming disengaged.” “They have already lost the working class, and they will lose women because what woman with some spiritual concern is going to come to this Church?” he adds.
“I believe that religions, if they have something to offer, it is to pause, to be silent, to see what is happening and, of course, to intervene, because anything else Jesus did in his life was to intervene. Jesus did not blame any woman,” Ruiz concludes.
**Sofía Buetas Faro** / Efe
Religion Digital
English version translated with AI